Welcome back! Term 2 Week 1

Today, we’ll look at… Overview of Term 2 syllabus Overview of ongoing term assignments Introduction to To Kill a Mockingbird: scrapbook activity To Kill a Mockingbird: annotation guide Holiday research task

Term 2: what we’ll focus on… To Kill a Mockingbird: close reading and analysis, understanding and exploring the main themes of the novel (such as…?) Writing: expository essays Review of skills: comprehension, literary analysis New writing skills: Journalistic writing

Term 2: ongoing assignments Bi-weekly forum discussion on Time Magazine articles Padlet theme boards for To Kill a Mockingbird More details will be given in class. These assignments will keep you consistently engaged with the text and with current affairs – which should make your studying/revision process a lot easier!

Time magazine forum discussions

IMPORTANT Some of you are still not members of the Wiki – you need to be a member so that you can post on forum discussions, etc. If you are not a member of the Wiki, please let me know by the end of the day so that I can send you an invitation.

Time magazine forum discussions The aim of these forum discussions is: to help you keep track of current affairs to help you hone your discussion/debating/argumentative skills, and to express your opinions and ideas effectively to allow you to choose to focus on ideas, topics and issues that interest you as a class

How these discussions will work: Instructions Discussions will take place in the project section of your Wiki; click on ‘Time Magazine Project’ and then on your relevant class. Every two weeks, groups will take it in turns to choose a topic of discussion. You may choose something specific – a current event – or something more general, like a theme or trend. The group in charge is responsible for finding a Time Magazine article relevant to the topic of discussion, and starting a forum discussion about it by: formulating discussion questions, adding links to other relevant articles/videos, etc.

Task Instructions You must refer to a specific article from Time magazine. (This means that you must also be sure to take care of your copies – don’t lose them!) All members of the class are expected to respond to and participate in forum discussions. I expect every student to respond intelligently to at least two discussions per term.

For week 2… Index numbers 1-4 will be in charge of the discussion. Choose a topic of discussion and email me by the end of Week 1. Use Friday’s issue of Time (or past issues) to choose a relevant article to discuss. Post the title / online link / scanned copy of this article on the Wiki Project page, along with discussion questions / topics, by Week 2 Monday. The discussion will stay open until Week 3 Monday. If you’re unsure of how to use the Wiki Projects page, please see me after class so I can explain it to you.

Questions about the Time magazine project?

To Kill a mockingbird Scrapbook activity Annotation guide

For this term and term 3, you’ll need… a scrapbook. This can be any notebook you have lying around at home (blank or ruled), or an HCI journal if you’d like. It’s up to you! We’re going to use the scrapbook solely for To Kill A Mockingbird. I’ll give you some small activities to complete, but you can also fill in the scrapbook in any way you like – with notes, pictures, newspaper articles, doodles, or anything else! By the end of the term, your scrapbook will hopefully be an interesting and creative revision guide  Please bring a notebook for this purpose to your next EL lesson.

Scrapbook activity Use the paper and materials provided to draw a mockingbird – or what you think a mockingbird might look like. (You can be as creative as you’d like – but no dead birds please!) Write your name somewhere on the paper as well. Paste this illustration on the cover of your scrapbook and bring it with you to our next EL lesson.

Annotation guide By this point, you’ve all (hopefully) read at least half of TKAM, and you’ve all (also hopefully) been annotating as you go along. I expect to see annotations throughout the novel – with a novel this dense and complex, it’s the only way you can keep track of events, connections and parallels in the text, and the literary devices used.

Some ways to annotate… The easiest method is to circle/highlight/underline bits of the text and write your notes in the margins. Remember that some ink might bleed through the paper and make it hard to read later; pencils might be too faint. If you don’t like writing in your books, you can stick post-its on relevant pages – this also gives you more room to write. I’d discourage the use of highlighters – they bleed through the page – but if you’d like to use them, that’s fine too.

What to annotate I expect you to make two broad kinds of annotations: 1. Language: underline/circle/highlight incidences of various literary devices – metaphors, similes, etc. You can also highlight sentences/phrases that you think stand out, even if you’re not sure exactly what literary device is being used. 2. Theme: annotate passages/sections that link to the wider themes you think the book is trying to address. If there’s anything else (characterization, setting etc.) that you’d like to focus on when you annotate, that’s absolutely fine – as long as you don’t neglect the categories above.

Holiday research task

As you watch other groups’ presentations, Write down the most interesting fact(s) you learnt from each. Use a different coloured paper for each group.